Kingdom Hearts: The World's Reluctant Heroes

by Blackdrag-rose

Nobody: Back to the Cave of Wonders

As they departed from Agrabah, to track down the Cave of Wonders so they could find a worthwhile treasure to trade for Jafar's black lamp, Aladdin explained that Genie and Carpet had gone off to see the world, now that Genie was free from his own prison, and he did miss his friend. He told them that the city was quiet without Genie being around and that was part of the reason he liked coming out into the city, as he enjoyed seeing how busy everyone was and listening to the sounds, and that had allowed him to discover Jafar's lamp thanks to Abu constantly going after it. Such a thing was why he wanted to go back to the Cave of Wonders, as while he could have asked Jasmine for some assistance he didn't want to use her gold and resources in this battle, he wanted to prove that he was capable of helping her without actually falling back on her status for everything. Now that they were here, however, Aladdin was sure that they would be able to clear out the trials of the Cave and recover something to make the Peddler's head turn, enough to make him trade for the lamp, and if that was the case he was sure Sombra could seal it away somewhere where no one could find it.

Such a thing made her chuckle for a moment, as Sombra agreed with Aladdin, she was sure she could do something else to deal with Jafar and prevent his escape from his prison, they just needed to get something to convince the Peddler to hand it over, hence their current trek through the sands.

"You know, it is good to see you guys again... as well as Fluttershy's sister." Aladdin said, as he had been surprised by the sudden arrival of Seras and understood the explanation they had given him, even though the group didn't reveal anything about the fact that they were from another world, and he was grateful to have her since Seras was a skilled warrior in her own right.

"Sorry I wasn't around during the last visit, but I was... busy." Seras replied, because while she didn't want to draw attention to the fact that she hadn't existed at that point in time, at least not in a physical body, it was easy to make Aladdin believe that she had been doing something else and only recently joined her sister on her adventures, which was technically the truth despite a few things being changed to not reveal anything.

After that it wasn't long before they reached the Cave's location, as it seemed to be resting in the same position that they had seen it in the last time Sora and his friends visited this world, and, as Sombra expected, there were a couple of enemies for them to deal with. This time around it happened to be a couple of Nocturnes and Bandits, joined by a couple of Shadows, but that was about it for the guardians, where Sombra discovered that the Cave's head wasn't possessed by dark magic this time around and that meant they could descend into the depths once more. The path they discovered once inside seemed to be a diagonal walkway heading towards the next portion of the ever changing dungeon, where they uncovered a brand new type of Heartless: a feminine one, they could see the shape of their breasts through their violet vests. In addition to that the new foe seemed to be wearing the attire of a fortuneteller, Aladdin identified it for them, which was a large headdress made of cloth covering everything but her eyes, the baggy pants she wore, and the golden bracelets on her wrists, despite the fact that she wore heels and seemed to be balancing on a crystal ball.

Sombra wasn't too impressed by the Fortuneteller, that was the name she was giving them, even though the Heartless' own magic happened to be ice focused, allowing Sombra to add some power to her own ice magic when she quickly captured and absorbed the new Heartless' freed heart.

The path itself wasn't too difficult, all they had to do was make their way down the passage and fight the Heartless, before Sora and the others found two more new types just hanging out, one happened to be a small fiery globe and the other was an ice cube, both with legs, causing Sombra to label them as Magma Globes and Ice Cubes. All Sombra found out was that all of the new Heartless granted her more power to her elemental magic, just like how the hearts of the Angel Stars boosted her light magic, meaning all she was doing was strengthening her mana reserves while empowering her fire and ice magics. At the same time Aladdin discovered that his earlier thoughts were right, having the entire group, plus Seras, made delving into the Cave of Wonders much easier, especially when the Fat Bandits, enemies he recalled fighting the last time the group had come to Agrabah, appeared to fight them as well. Such a thing allowed him to discover that not even these foes stood much of a chance against the combined power of Sora and the others, they were just decimating the Heartless and clearing the way for them to progress deeper into the treasure cave.

That was when they stepped into a passage that was a wall of water on each side, a golden statue on the other side from the area they were standing in, and a floating light purple gem in front of them, an item that Abu snatched and caused the walls of water to disappear, only to be replaced by statues that summoned icicles to attack the group with. Such a thing barely stopped the group as Sora and the others avoided the obstacles as Radiant collected the gemstone, crossed the passage, and then inserted the gem into a slot that caused everything to stop, before the golden statue moved out of the way. Once the way was clear, and the ice shooting statues had calmed down, the group moved into the new passage and found that it was a set of steps heading down to a platform that seemed to be floating at the top of a chasm, a circular tunnel going down into the earth. Sombra checked the area out and nodded to the others, as it looked like the only way forward was to accept the challenge that was on the elegant sign, as one had appeared in front of them when they stepped onto the platform, to which Aladdin nodded his head and tapped the sign in a way that let it know they were ready.

The trial, as it turned out, was just more of the same, they had to defeat a number of enemies as the platforms disappeared while the group was fighting the Heartless, forcing them to fall to the next one without suffering fall damage, though Sombra let her friends do most of the work. The reason for that was due to the fact that their enemies were all of the Heartless they had seen since arriving in this world, which they had proved their worth against time and time again, so even with her doing nothing the others tore through the Heartless, offering her a feast of hearts as she captured each and every one of them before they could escape. This went on for two whole minutes, the platforms dropping at random and with no pattern, and the Heartless appeared in large numbers to compensate for their own large group, though Sombra did crush a few enemies as well, just in case the trial required all of them to do something during the battle. In the end it didn't seem to matter if she joined the battle or not, they were able to reach the bottom of the chasm and the final platform in no time at all, where there was a flash and a way formed for them to access another door, causing them to walk up to it and continue their search for a worthwhile treasure for the Peddler.

Sure enough the path brought them straight to the treasure room they had passed by during their first adventure, where all of them found piles upon piles of gold and jewels around them, a thief's wet dream, and there was a large golden statue on the other side of the chamber, with large gems placed in certain places, a single ruby, a single sapphire, a single emerald, and three amethysts.

"There, that should be good enough for the Peddler." Aladdin stated, as it was beyond anything he had seen in the Sultan's treasury, he had seen what was in there at one point in time, and he knew that it would appease the individual that they were trying to appease, before he realized something important, "Though now that I think about it... it's going to take some time for us to get that out of here and return to Agrabah so we can get Jafar's lamp."

"Not really." Sombra remarked, where she held a hand out as her dark power flared for a moment, wrapping around the golden statue that they were interested in before causing it to vanish, transported into a space where she could keep it safe before summoning it in front of the Peddler later, all while Aladdin and Abu were stunned, before she chuckled, "Oh, and Pete? I wouldn't if I were you."

Sora glanced back at the opening they had walked through and found that Pete was, in fact, standing at the opening, totally surprised by the fact that someone had noticed his presence, though he proved that he was a moron by snapping his fingers for a moment before fleeing, causing darkness to surround them before Sombra shattered the spell with a simple wave of her hand.

"Great, he's going to get back to Agrabah before us." Sora commented, as he knew that Maleficent's moronic follower had one of the strongest skills in moving from world to world utilizing the Dark Corridors, meaning Pete would go after Jafar's lamp the moment he reached the city, before he and the others found a dark oval appearing in the area in front of them, causing him to glance back at Sombra.

"Indeed he might, but we'll be him anyway." Sombra said, where the others nodded and rushed through the portal, while at the same time Aladdin found that they were back in Agrabah, and once Sombra was on the other side, and made sure no one was left inside the treasure vault, she closed the portal before glancing at the rest of the city, "Now then, let's find Pete and that black lamp."

What they discovered was that Pete and the Peddler were playing keep away with each other in front of the palace, Jasmine nowhere to be seen, meaning she had gone into the palace earlier, and when Pete got it Iago rushed in and nabbed Jafar's lamp, causing the pair to crash into a wall as he dropped the lamp into Sombra's hands.

"Oh, now you've done it!" Pete stated, where he slammed his fist on the ground as several things happened, the first being a large fat Heartless that looked like a mage of fire appeared out of burning some stuff, the second being an icy version of the first figure appeared after freezing a few things, and the third was that Genie flew down out of nowhere and hugged Aladdin as the others focused on the Heartless, "These are the Volcanic Lord and the Blizzard Lord... and they'll be the..."

Donald instantly used a chunk of his mana to summon a meteor and crushed the icy Heartless into the ground, opening the way for Sora and Goofy to beat their target up, though at the same time Fluttershy and Seras rushed into the air and used their Keyblades to knock the fiery one down as well, before Radiant struck both with her Keyblade, silencing them in just a few seconds.

"Let me guess: 'the end of you'?" Sombra inquired, while at the same time using her unique skill to capture the hearts of the two new Heartless that were just no match for her and her friends, in fact this just caused Aladdin and Pete's jaws to drop as they realized something incredibly important, the group was far stronger than either one had realized, "You know, Pete, you really should quit while you're ahead."

In the next instant she punched Pete in the stomach, hard enough for him to fall to his knees before opening a Dark Corridor to flee the world, allowing Sombra to focus on the lamp as she added a few more enchantments and spells to it to totally cut off Jafar's attempts to escape. While she did that Genie and Aladdin caught up on what had happened since the former was gone, while at the same time Carpet joined them, allowing the trio to regroup and have some fun as Aladdin decided that he could accept Iago's apology, something Jasmine agreed with since she came out after hearing the arrival of the two 'Lord' type of Heartless. While the princess thanked them, however, Sombra noticed a heart fragment floating nearby and caught it as well, feeling that it was a sense of freedom that was unlike anything she had felt before, meaning she had six fragments of Vanitas' light half, causing her to smile as she made sure it was safe and secure. At the same time Sombra also made sure to place the lamp inside the same storage area that the treasure statue was in, where no one else would be able to get their hands on it, which would appease the pair since it meant Jafar would be unable to return to bother them.

Once the couple was sure the coast was clear, and Genie was ready to take a break from his adventuring, Sora and the rest of his group departed from Agrabah, returning to the ship once they were far away from the palace, allowing them to set off for the next world and whatever troubles it might have to challenge them with.

Comments

[Xalok]

Pete, really needs to learn when to quit.

[Xarmar13]

I'm actually surprised that Sombra hadn't tried to win Pete to her side. Though I suppose Pete is too thick to realize that Maleficent is out of her league when it comes to Sombra. Then again, if Pete weren't messing around there would be much less plot for this half of KH2.